


Cleaning Up

by puptart



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Fluff, Gender-Neutral Runner Five, Other, Season 5 Spoilers, Tender Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24377164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puptart/pseuds/puptart
Summary: Putting things back to the way they were can leave a mess.
Relationships: Runner Five/Sam Yao
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	Cleaning Up

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a soft little bitch.
> 
> Also here's a drawing of my Five done by the ever lovely Crownleys (who also helped edit this): https://crownleys.tumblr.com/post/617321173592752128/its-55-that-means-its-the-perfect-time-to-draw
> 
> Mine's the big bastard holding a sledgehammer.

The door to the comms shack sticks when Five tries to open it, caught against something heavy behind it, leaving barely a centimeter of space to look through. When they peer in curiously, they don’t see much beyond cardboard and paper.

“Sammy?” they call, unable to shake the memory of him gluing his hand to his face years ago. 

“Yeah, just a minute-- Bloody--” There’s frustrated muttering from within, followed by shuffling, crinkling, and a rather alarming _crash_. Before they can start to whip themself up into a worry that he’s caused an avalanche and buried himself, Sam yanks the door open. He’s a little sweaty, very ragged, and has something sticky on his jeans.

“...I’ll just come back later,” Five says, backing away slowly.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sam says, reaching out and grabbing them by the front of their shirt. Considering they have four inches of height and forty pounds of muscle more than Sam does, his grip doesn’t actually do much to stop them from leaving. The smile pulling at the corners of his mouth does though.

He tugs them into the comms shack, which is in an even bigger state of disarray than Five is used to. 

“What happened?” they ask. Sam sighs, running a hand through his bristly black hair. It could use a trim. Maybe they’ll wrangle him into a chair later and take care of it for him.

“I might’ve had a moment and just emptied a bunch of boxes on the floor?” Sam rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“Ah,” Five says. It’s Sam’s first day back to work after taking Abel back from Sigrid’s control. Not that he hadn’t been trying to get back in, but after what Ian did to him he was given a mandatory furlough to recover. 

Sam looks up at them with a slanted smile. “Want to help me clear it up?”

“Sure,” Five says, already ducking to pick through the nearest pile. They glance over at him. “You had ‘a moment’?”

“Yeah just…” He rubs at his chin, his goatee far better groomed than his hair. “You remember how everything looked after Sigrid.”

Five purses their lips, nodding. All the buildings in Abel had stayed when Sigrid took over. The wall was still the same. The skeletal structure hadn’t changed, but the heart was gone, the skin scrubbed away and grown anew. Abel had barely been recognizable during the time Sigrid had control, and it had taken ages to have the township looking like itself once she was ousted. Even now, after weeks of cleaning up, rebuilding, and putting things back to how they were, Abel still looks like a ghost of itself.

“It was almost _too_ clean in here,” Sam says, gaze far off. “Janine would probably disagree, but well. You know me.”

“You’re a nester,” Five says, the fondness clear in their voice. Sam smiles over at them.

“Yeah. I couldn’t stand it looking like it was so _new_. Like I’d never been in here. So I just--” He gestures at the mess all around them. “Which it helped me feel less like I was going to go completely mad, but well... now I can’t really move around in here.”

“We can figure something out,” Five promises. They grab some binders of runner profiles where they’d been scattered, stacking them up and carrying them over to the dented file cabinet that’s been in this room for at least five years now. Sam pulls the drawer open for them, which takes a few tries and some coaxing.

“See?” Five says, trying to inject optimism in their voice, which feels pretty foreign. “This is still the same.”

Sam laughs. 

They get to work tidying things up, Five staying quiet, Sam providing all the chatter they need for them both. It doesn’t take long for Five to realize the mess isn’t actually as bad as it had seemed at the start. Before long, the place is looking almost tidy, and Sam is getting quieter and quieter.

“Sammy?”

“I think I miss how it was before,” he says, without them having to ask. Five straightens up and takes the half-step necessary to reach him. Like a reflex, his arms open and he lets himself be pulled close to their chest. 

“You’re not usually one to get stuck on the past,” Five murmurs against his hair. He shrugs.

“A lot has happened.”

“Mm.”

_“You_ died.”

“Didn’t die.”

“Almost did. I thought you had.” Sam heaves a great sigh. “I suppose you’ll call us even on that one though.” Five grimaces.

“I thought you were dead for nearly two days. You only had to wait for what, half an hour?”

“It was a tough half hour,” Sam argues. Five shakes their head, squeezing him tight.

“Well, I’m fine now. You’re fine. Everyone’s fine.”

“Yeah, that’s not what I mean. I know we’re all alright.” Sam’s fingers toy with the hem of their shirt at their back. “I missed this.”

“This?” Five pulls back just enough to look at him. “Hugs?”

“Hugging you, yeah.” Sam looks up at them, face gone serious. “In fact, I wanted to talk about what happened, when you rescued me from Ian.”

All the air suddenly leaves the room, and heat rushes to Five’s face. Sam looks up at them expectantly, but they have no words to draw on to answer him with. They didn’t think he’d be bringing _that_ up any time soon, and they’d hoped that he wouldn’t bring it up at all. 

“I- I hear Janine calling me,” they manage to say, which only makes Sam grin.

“Janine’s not in Abel, Five,” Sam reminds them, sounding far too amused. They shove him back a step.

“We don’t have to talk about that.”

“But I want to, Five. Don’t you?” Sam doesn’t come any closer, but he offers them a hand, palm up. There are still remnants of what Ian did to him on the bit of his wrist visible past the sleeve of the green sweater Five had gifted him years ago. So much of it has been darned over the years, that Five doesn’t know how much of the original is even left.

“...What do you want me to say?” they ask, shoulders dropping. 

“Honestly, I’d like to know if you meant it.”

“Of course I meant it,” Five huffs. “You think I’d kiss you as a joke?”

“No but-- in the heat of the moment, having finally gotten our home back after months of desperation?” He gives them a plaintive look. “I’d get it if it was something that just _happened_.”

Five presses their lips together tightly… And places their hand in his. He wraps his long fingers around theirs and squeezes tight.

“I meant it,” they admit, so soft that Sam could be forgiven for not hearing. He doesn’t look surprised in the least to hear it. 

“Good. Because I meant it too when I kissed you back.” Sam wets his lips. “I know we’ve already done this before, but I don’t think I was ready for a relationship then. And I’m sorry I asked for that from you.”

Five’s chin drops, and they scuff their shoe against the floorboards, thinking back to when they’d been a fresh new runner. How they’d burned fast and bright with Sam. “I’m not sorry.”

Sam cups his hand against their cheek and lifts their face to look at them. “I’m glad for that at least.”

Heart thumping, Five leans into his touch. They missed this too, _so_ much. After Ian had taken him, Five had been so scared they’d never have a chance to touch Sam again, to see him, to hear his voice. The kiss had been stupid, too rushed, and too hard to be a real _kiss_ rather than just a messy clash of their mouths against one another. Five had shoved Sam away too quickly when he started kissing them back for it to turn into anything more, but the sight of his tongue darting over his lips as he stumbled back has haunted them ever since. 

“Do you really want to do this again?” Five asks, voice low. 

Sam lets out a shuddering breath, and thank God, he’s as nervous as they are. His knees might even be shaking.

“I do, yeah. You?”

Five snorts. “Kinda obvious, isn’t it Sammy?”

Laughing, he draws their hand to his mouth and kisses the backs of their fingers. “I want to hear it.”

Five’s heart leaps into their throat, but they push past it to say, “I love you.”

Everything goes still, and quiet.

That is… not what they meant to say. 

“Blimey, Five, I--” Sam nearly chokes. “You do?” 

Five covers their face with their free hand, Sam holding tight to their other still, and groans. 

“Fuck.”

“Hey, hey! Look at me. Five? Look.” 

They let their hand fall to the side, hoping they’ll maybe see a giant hole that can swallow them up. Instead they see Sam staring up at them with something like wonder.

“I love you too,” he says, breathless like he can’t say the words fast enough.

Air fills their lungs once more, Five’s chest expanding with their breath. Something heavy falls from their shoulders to the ground, breaking into a million little pieces too insignificant to worry about anymore. _Do you?_ They want to ask him, _are you sure?_

They don’t have to though. The answer is staring them in the face, leaning towards them, a hand around the back of their neck pulling them in. Without a moment’s hesitation, they grab his hips and drag him closer, meeting him halfway for a kiss that is _far_ better than the last one.

It’s familiar, but brand new at the same time, because though they’ve kissed each other before at least a hundred times, they’ve both been changed by the years, shaped by experience. This _feels_ better than before too, less clawing and desperate and naive. Now that they know themselves better, they can just focus on knowing one another again. Five would be happy to learn Sam Yao inside and out as many times as he’ll let them.

They pull back, both of them more than a little dazed, though it’s not clear if it was the impact of the kiss or a lack of oxygen. Either way, Five can’t help but laugh.

“God that was…”

“Yeah,” Sam agrees, smiling like he can’t stop. “We could do it again.”

Five takes his chin between their fingers and they draw him back up into another one. And then one more. And then one to the side of his neck, where they know he likes it best.

The door creaks, and a new voice asks, “Hey Sam, do you think you could-” 

Five and Sam nearly jump out of their skins in unison, scrambling away from one another, but by then it’s far too late. Maxine has already seen. She blinks owlishly, dressed down after her shift in the hospital, hand still on the doorknob.

It does not take long for that look of surprise to turn into something far more devilish.

“Well, pardon me,” she practically purrs.

“Maxie, don’t tell- Maxie!” Sam yells, but she’s already closed the door behind her as she left.

Five pinches the bridge of their nose. “Well, I guess people were gonna find out one way or another.”

“Yeah but the rumor mill is going to turn it into you shagging me over the broadcasting equipment,” Sam says dryly, his cheeks going pink as he realizes what he’s said. Five just gives him a sticky slow smile.

“That _could_ be arran--”

“Nope! No, you stop that.” Sam jabs a finger at them. “Not in my comms shack! This is like, _sacred ground!”_

Five just shakes their head. “Fine. You can pick where I shag you next then.”

With a breathless laugh, Sam starts pushing them towards the door. “Alright, out with you. I’ve got work to do and you are- you are not going to be any help.”

“Yeah,” Five admits, letting themself be corralled out. They plant their feet outside the shack though, turning around to brace their hands on the door frame. “You’ll come find me later?”

Sam lifts himself up to steal a kiss, and says, “Count on it. Now go on.”

They leave, heart thrumming and lighter than it’s been in years, heading off to make sure Maxine spreads the raunchiest version of their getting together possible.


End file.
